Leaf Cutting Ants

[freeeye]

We have a serious problem with these monsters.

Any ideas on how to get rid of them if you don't have access to their nest? I've searched google and there seems to be no solution in this situation.

They have found our 4th floor roof garden and are stripping it bare. In one night they totally strip many plants. They come from a neighbor's yard. Rain is the only thing that seems to slow them down.

[Macuardo]

Try a 50/50 mixture of baking soda and icing sugar in a margarine container with holes poked in the top.
They eat this and also bring it back to the queen, they love the sugar but can't digest the baking soda
POOF! all gone (they blow up!! sounds mean, but oh well)

[freeeye]

Right now I'd love to see them blow up.

I'll try this but all these guys seem to be interested in is the leaves from my plants. They especially love my jasmine and citrus collection. Supposedly they use the leaves to grow fungi that they then use for food.

[Garf]

I've used a really good ant poison in a squirt bottle from Home Depot here in Canada, maybe the one in PV carries the same stuff. The ants track the poison back to the nest.

[freeeye]

I've tried every "safe" remedy on the internet. Nothing really worked for more than a day or so.

I went out and bought a commercial insecticide. This works.

When I was a young kid, my parents used to get mad at me because I would always walk carefully, watching for any bugs so that I didn't step on them. I carried this attitude all through my twenties and applied it to participation in all manners of war and social control.

Now I could just as easily kill something that was threatening me as flash it a peace sign. Getting older seems to make it much easier for me to be able to kill and not worry about the "earth," the "sanctity of life" or even my own existence. I think I've become the same as the people I used to hate. So much for my values or morals...

Maybe running this forum and seeing how down and dirty some superficially "nice" people really are has brought me to this mental state?

[wiloran]

Rick I know what you mean. I spent 2 years fighting leaf cutters with "natural methods" - baking soda, corn meal, etc., etc....
They would be gone for a couple of days, then back with a vengeance. I finally gave up about a year ago and hired a pest control guy who for 300 pesos took care of the problem. Haven't seen one since.